T354 Final Project - Spring 2008

Propose and create an animation lasting at least 60 seconds in length. (Alternatively, you can create two 30-second pieces.) Your animation should be original, creative and professional looking. It should take advantage of the After Effects environment and serve as an excellent addition to your student portfolio.

You may not use other people's sounds or images in your own work without permission. If you do use other people's intellectual property, please identify and address this in your critique.

Possible Ideas: a short animated story, a 60 second commercial or public service announcement, a promo or an opening title sequence for a show, a political message, or an opening for your demo reel or DVD project.

Criteria:

Your project must contain original artwork and a soundtrack. Turn in a full-size SDTV version (eg. 720 x 480 pixels) as a DV, H.264 or MPEG4 movie for the assignment. The proposal and design for your project will be presented in class at least one week before the final projects are due.

For your final project you will turn in:

• Proposal: This explains the purpose of your project, the intended audience and the message. For more information on proposals, check out my on-line info.
• Script and/or storyboard. You can create a script or a storyboard, but either way, they should have plenty of detail. How much? Let's put it this way. You should be able to give the same script to two people, and they will create more or less the same project. For more information on scripts, check out my on-line info. I also have storyboard templates on available. Check out the links from my T351 home page for these.
• Project: At least 60 seconds in length, this animation should be rendered at full standard defintion (720 x 480 pixels) as a DV, H.264 or MPEG4 movie.
• Critique. This will be at least a one page in length and describe the files you used, your artwork, the effects & filters used, and the overall process. Explain if you think the project was successful or not and why.

Suggestions: Make sure your audio is at least 16 bits at 44.1kHz (CD quality). If you want to incoporate it into your DVD project, make it 16 bits at 48 kHz. Remember also to follow the guidlines for composing good graphics. (using contrast to separate foregound & background elements, adherance to the safe text area, etc.). Fade up from black at the beginning and fade out at the end. Make sure any on-screen text is easy to read and on long enough to read.

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